Moderate Republican Jimmy Dees Calls for Common Ground in Congress

Blair Castro and Thomas Jenkins sit down on “The People’s Voice” with Jimmy Dees, businessman? law enforcement professional, and Republican candidate for Alabama’s 1st Congressional District, for a conversation about balancing the budget, public safety, healthcare reform, economic growth, and bringing people together across political divides.

Jimmy Dees, who self-identifies as a moderate Republican, discusses why he believes the country needs more common-sense leadership and less political division. Drawing from his background in law enforcement, business, and community leadership, he talks about restoring trust in government, supporting working families, protecting first responders, and finding practical solutions that benefit South Alabama and the country as a whole.

WATCH as Jimmy Dees joins “The People’s Voice” for a candid conversation about leadership, unity, and the future of Alabama’s 1st Congressional District.

Click to learn more: https://www.jimmydees.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Good evening. Welcome to WFUZ TV, the People's Voice Podcast. I'm Blair Castro here with Thomas Jenkins. And today we have Mr. Jimmy Dees in the studio with us. He's running for Alabama's first congressional district. Mr. Dees, thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

So I wanted to ask what made you want to jump into this congressional race? There's seven candidates in this race right now. What possessed you to take on this challenge?

SPEAKER_01 0:27

So, you know, I've I've followed politics most of my life, and what I was seeing happening, whether it's the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, just so much, so much division, no ability to come together and actually make decisions and tackle some of the problems that I think uh one being the national debt, the other being health care, tackle those problems, which are actually going to require uh working, uh, you know, both parties actually working together. And I saw this as a good opportunity to sort of jump in and uh and be a voice for that.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Uh be the moderate voice. I think that's really needed these days. We've uh discussed it on the show before. The reason that we have a purple background is because that's when red and blue come together. So we've we get accused of being Democrat a lot, despite both being Republicans, but we we've got to have some unity somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Yeah, that I saw you online, you know, consider yourself a moderate Republican. I think I am probably, you know, on that moderate kind of spectrum as well. Um, but you're absolutely right in that we have to be able to listen to the other side. If you can't even sit down with them and have a conversation and you're just calling each other names and insults, then nothing's going to get done. That's why we keep ending up these government shutdowns. I think that's a huge problem. So aside from being kind of a voice of reason and a person to sort of bring everyone together, what are some other priorities in your platform that you hope to make a difference in?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

So two issues that I absolutely want to address. Uh the first is national debt, and the other is how healthcare is delivered. So when you when you look at the national debt, it's around, we'll just call it$40 trillion. It'll be there before the end of the year. But the part that folks are missing is, and by the way, you can go to the uh the um uh Treasury Department, you can go to the uh Congressional Budget Office, and you can look at these reports. There was a report, a report issued, I think it was March 19th by the Treasury Department. And if you actually go through the details of that report, there's a number that doesn't really jump out. It just kind of gets hidden, and it's$88 trillion. That$88 trillion is the shortfall the government has today on social type programs. Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare. And by the way, that number has grown$18 trillion since 2021. And no one wants to talk about it. It's the$40 trillion is enough. When you add on top of that another$88 trillion, uh it's it's just not sustainable. And by the way, if if you read the report, you'll find eight times it's mentioned in the report from Treasury that our current uh fiscal policy is not sustainable. Those those those are in quotes. That's exactly what they said eight times that our current our current fiscal policy is not sustainable in the long term. And if we don't start addressing that as a nation, uh I think we're facing an economic collapse. And it's not 20, 30, 40 years down the road. I think it could be a lot sooner. One of the things that it doesn't address is it doesn't address wars. It doesn't uh address any, you know, God forbid we have another pandemic, any kind of natural disaster. It doesn't address any of those type expenditures that the government comes alongside and actually helps folks with. All that is on top of the debt that's already been uh been collected.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

Wow. So two questions. One, how did you I feel like nobody's talking about this? Why is nobody talking about this? Is my first question. And my second question is what made you actually pull these reports and look at them? Are you giving a finance background? What were you what kind of like was the straw that was like, I really think something's going on with the country's finances?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

So uh I worked for an ExxonMobil uh joint venture, and for 20 years, it was my job to look after the capital program. So our capital program, we spent around a billion dollars a year. That was what our spend was. Plus, we had other projects uh for whether it be a five-year plan or a 10-year plan that made it a multi-billion dollar portfolio. And so I'm very familiar with with looking at uh at business plans. And and so I simply pulled it. You know, I pulled what's the plan? Uh, what's the budget for the next one year, the next five years, and the next 10 years, and then and and then even into future years that the federal government has put forward. And the data is right there. All you have to do is read it. And I think folks don't want to read it, especially politicians, because they're concerned about uh one, they go in thinking about how am I going to get re-elected. They go in trying to raise additional money, whether it be for the party or for their own campaign. And there's no accountability, none whatsoever. Because if it fails, you just simply blame the other side. And for me, it's like we got to grow up as a party. We're the party in power today, and we need to grow up and act like adults and do the thing that's right, not just for folks that agree with us, but for all folks.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

So I noticed that at the debate you said something about um they talked about managing the budget, and I think you said sometimes, correct me if I'm wrong, that you do have to cut programs and people aren't gonna like it. And the reason people don't want to do that is because obviously they want to get re-elected or they want to stay in power, so they're afraid sometimes to make those cuts, even though financially that's probably the most sustainable thing to do, and something has to be cut. So, how would you address things like that as they came up?

SPEAKER_01 6:35

So, one, you're gonna have to cut. You absolutely have to cut spending. There's there's no way to just and by the way, this is just to stop the bleeding. This has nothing to do with actually trying to pay back the debt that we've already accumulated. So you're gonna have to cut programs and you're gonna have to raise revenue. Now that's a balance. You know what? Can we cut enough programs to actually meet the revenue that's coming in today? Or can we not cut programs? Or and a lot of times it's promises that we've made. That's the non-discretionary part portion of the budget. Can we make enough cuts there that we don't have to raise revenue, or we can't do it and we do have to raise revenue? And I think it's going to be a balance of both. So my wife and I, let's just say that we bring home$1,000 a month. And that$1,000 a month has to cover all of our living expenses, the things that we, you know, spend money on on a day-to-day basis, and long-term debt that we might have, whether it's a mortgage or a car payment, maybe we'll pay back credit card debt. You have to learn to work within that, whatever that amount is. And the federal government does not do that because there's no, there's no advantage to doing that because we have elected officials. And their primary focus is how do how do I stay in office and how do we keep the party in office? And as long as you're doing that, and as long as that's your focus, I don't know if we're ever going to be able to deal with it until it absolutely collapses. And that's what you don't want to do.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

What programs come to mind that you see that could use immediate uh cutting?

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Okay, so uh this won't make me popular, but let's talk about health care. So uh the U.S. spends around$14,000,$14,000 to$15,000 per capita on every individual for health care. All right. Some of that's through private insurance, and about half of it's through government programs, Medicaid, Medicare. That is by far the largest amount per capita of any nation in the world. Uh when you think of European nations, some that do healthcare really well, think about Germany, think about France, uh, when you look at the Scandinavian countries, they're all anywhere from$7,000 to$9,000 per capita. So we're almost double that. I believe we have the best doctors, and I believe we have the best nurses and the best lab techs in the world, but we have a horrible system of how that health care is actually delivered. And what it does is it rewards, it rewards companies that are in the health care industry. And, you know, for me, until you address that, and by the way, that's part of that$88 trillion deficit that I was talking about. That it's it's unfunded on a future, you know, when you when you actually look down the road. I think the relationship I have with my doctor should be primary. And if that doctor wants to give me something, order a test, he should not have to go to an insurance company uh to get approval to do that. And that's what I would like to see. I would like to see that relationship between uh doctor-patient actually make primary and not secondary as it is today.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

Yeah, I pretty much refuse to carry health insurance because why should I pay a huge monthly fee for insurance and then still have to pay more when it comes time to use it?

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yeah. Well, I mean, when you get to be my age, all right, you what you don't want to lose is your assets. And unfortunately, today, it's the middle class that really can't afford health care. Uh those who are below a certain level, it's provided. If you're over 65, it's provided. It's us folks in the middle who actually have a home that's paid off or cars that are paid off, and we have savings. These are the folks who are struggling actually paying for these premiums. And by the way, it's it's not going down. If you ever think it's going down, it's not. It's only going to go up year to year.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Yeah, we uh I had a self-pay person too. I think a lot of people in our generation don't uh have health insurance because it's just so high. And we, you know, hopefully don't go to the doctor that much. And then when you end up going to the doctor, you just self-pay or whatever. But like when you go to apply for their patient's assistance, there's no way. I just feel like most people don't make as little to get any approval, but they don't make as much to make it worth it to have health insurance. And you're right, there's like this middle area of people that are kind of getting screwed in the health care field.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

I mean, does it not seem to me it's just asinine that companies are making money off denying your care? And that's really what they're doing. You know, they raise premiums and they push down as much as much treatment as they can because the expectation is that they return a profit on a quarterly basis. And the only way to do that is raising premiums and denying care.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

So going back to your background a little bit, can you tell us about your current job, where you're from, and uh kind of how you got your background and experience? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

So um again, I I worked in the oil and gas industry for almost 40 years in different type positions. I retired uh back in COVID. We moved back to Alabama to take care of parents, aging parents. And uh I sat home for a month, bought a boat, fixed the boat up, went up to my dad's, did the things that you do for your dad. Months went by. And I think it was around six or seven months, it's like I can't do this anymore. I was so used to getting up early in the morning and having a job to go to and having my mind engaged doing something and just being around other folks, that I decided I gotta find a job. And plus, my wife was about ready to kick me out of the house also. Uh sort of an aside, when when you retire, you have to be careful that you don't keep spending the same amount of money that you did when you were working. And so we we were fairly young when we retired and we we wanted to enjoy life. But so uh I answered an ad uh off WTRG to call the uh Mobile County Sheriff's Department. They were recruiting folks to work in at Metro Gail. And I thought, you know what, that sounds kind of interesting. So uh I think I actually texted my number immediately. I got a text back, and it was like, hey, can you come in tomorrow morning for an interview? I'm like, sure, I'd come in. So I went in and they were ready to hire me that day. I think I want to say eight people were supposed to show up for the interview. I was the only one that showed up. I know it's probably yeah, and um so yeah, so I I took the job, I worked for about about eight months. Uh and by the way, it it it changes how you see people. Absolutely. Uh when it it just changes your perception of people. It was a good experience for me. And my son, who was a uh he is an officer with uh Mobile Police, he said, Dad, why don't you try to go through the academy? I said, sure. So I applied and passed the physical, and so at 59, I uh I finished the uh academy at Mobile and uh became a patrolman out in the second precinct and absolutely love uh meeting the public on a day-to-day basis. And I've said this before. When you when you're out meeting the public, I I I got to where I didn't see white people, black people, Asian people, you know, Hispanic people. I didn't see rich or poor, I just saw people because when you see folks, you see them, it's either gonna be the worst part of their day or it potentially is the worst day of their life. And um I I just I found that I had compassion, I had more empathy, I began to understand that you know the world was much, much different than um than the world that I had was growing up in. And uh again, no Democrats, no Republicans, no Libertarians, no independents, they were they were just they were just people. Um and that and that's part of what that's part of the reason that I wanted to run is I want to be able to bring that uh to this job. Is uh I want to be a representative of all the folks in District, recognizing that that I do adhere to the Republican platform. The implementation of that I may not necessarily agree with, but uh I can still I can still support that platform.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

So the platform itself right now, I think our party is really divided as the party elections, you know, for chair and stuff has shown this year. Um I would like to see more unity in the party and then more unity across lines, too. And I agree with some of your statements online that maybe our president is fueling the divide, some, to say it lightly. Um I think it's good that we have leaders willing to call out bad behavior. It doesn't matter who you are, if you're at the same party, if you're a different party or whatever. How do you stand and what are you willing to do? Um, are are you okay with calling out bad behavior like that?

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Sure. I and and by the way, I've been called out for bad behavior. I'm 62 years old. And uh and I tell folks that, you know, when you eat crow, it tastes better with ketchup. So, you know, I know what it's like to be called out. And normally when when when folks critique you, they may not they may not do it complete justice, but there's always a portion of it I found that's true, that you actually have to deal with and focus on. And I think it's healthy if you want to grow as a person, uh I think it's healthy to be to have that critique. Uh you know, I you you don't want to drink your own Kool-Aid so long that uh you know, that you actually start believing some of the things you say. It it's I I've I've told folks it's sort of like the emperor has no clothes. And and that's an old fairy tale. But if you just say it enough, it doesn't make it true. Uh it, you know, truth is still truth.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

Authenticity as well, because I know people that personally, you know, this has been a thing since the first administration with Trump personally have a lot of issues with him, but they're terrified to speak up and critique him in some ways because they think it's going to label them as a traitor or Democrat. But I think within our own leadership, if we're not the ones holding our own people accountable and we're not the ones striving to be better, then how can we set an example for everybody else? And I would rather see people speaking truth and being who they are and what they really believe in the public instead of behind closed doors saying one thing and then out voting and being scared to act another way in public.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Yeah, and uh I'm not scared. I don't care. If if I don't win, you know what? I I got a great job to go to uh on Wednesday morning. I enjoy my job. And I'm not getting into it for the money. I'm not getting into it for the power. I actually believe I have the experience of life and some practically practical experience that I've had over life to actually bring change uh to Washington, at least be a start. And again, you know, I I've gotten some comments around, well, you know, by you saying that, you don't have my vote, you shouldn't have done that. It's like, yeah, I should have, because that's me. And if if if folks don't agree, that's okay. I I don't I don't have an issue with that.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Yeah, I respect it. I'm I'm glad someone's out there being real. It's a world of a lot of fake people in this political realm, so it's better to go down who you are and what you believe instead of faking it to try to succeed. That's what I think.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

What is your biggest goal that you would like to accomplish in office and what future do you envision for Alabama as a result?

SPEAKER_01 19:09

So my my biggest goal is to change the tone in Washington. Because until we get to a place where we can talk with each other uh and address issues that affect not only Alabamians but all Americans, nothing is going to get resolved. Absolutely nothing. If if we don't change the tone and get to a place where we can sit at the table and have an adult conversation and come up with long-term plans, uh it it doesn't really matter what gets done uh until we actually address that.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

So for the vision for Alabama, how do you think Alabama on a national scale could be represented a little better? And what kind of things would you like to fight for for our state?

SPEAKER_01 20:00

So uh for the district, uh, one of the good things that we have going for us in District One is the is our port system uh and the old Brooklyn field and the rail system and the interstate system. We need to continue to exploit that as much as we can. Um, if we if we don't exploit things like that and bring in new jobs and new industry uh to the area, good paid industry, not not low-paying, uh, you know, we're we're gonna we're gonna suffer economically. Uh, I'd like to see more folks in Alabama get into the trades. Uh I worked, I didn't work in the trades, but I was responsible for the trades and the role that I had with um uh with Exxon uh at the refinery. And I found a lot of value in involving those trades uh as part of your long-term strategic planning because it doesn't matter if you've got all this capital money to invest in the area if you don't actually have the workforce that can build it. And uh we need to encourage uh you know kids in high school, not necessarily if they want to go to university, that's great, but there is an alternative, and by the way, that alternative is going to pay you more, most probably, than going and getting that university degree.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

So, this is a question for you as someone with an oil background. How do you feel about drilling and sort of the mud dumping in Mobile Bay? And what would you tell people that might think you're not environmentally friendly with the oil background?

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Okay. Again, from from my experience, we spent we spent a tremendous amount of money to make sure that we were a good corporate citizen to the area. Okay, so that so that meant that how we produced oil, uh uh how we how we treated folks, what the pay was, how we involved uh the local government. We wanted to make that primary. And if we would have never like dunked mud in the middle of the bay of a city. You just you just don't do that. So um I to me that's it it it's an issue but it's an issue that should have never actually you know been addressed. As far as as oil oil and gas we have to continue to explore for oil and gas. You you can't just say oh my oh my goodness you know gas has went you know to you know over$4 a gallon. We need to do something to bring more oil online. Well you can't do that you you just can't flip a switch and and it it takes years. You've got to explore you have to develop you've got to uh you know conceptualize different projects you have to get funding for those projects and then you have to build them all of this it doesn't take months it it takes years and sometimes it takes decades. I am a big proponent of oil and gas. I'm also a big proponent of uh atomic energy uh there are there are opportunities out there to bring uh smaller reactors online uh that are safe uh and that um really would would you know supplement the uh the local grid or the statewide grid what do you say to people who are asking Trump keeps saying that we have more oil than anybody and we don't need Iran's oil so why is it so high right now? Well because oil is sold on a worldwide market. Like we we we can't you're not gonna find producers selling oil at a discount uh you know to U.S. suppliers they because they sell their oil on a global market. Right, wrong or indifferent we are part of a global economy. And uh yeah I mean that's that's why you you you're just not gonna even though we're producing a lot of oil uh a lot of that oil is gonna be exported and that oil is exported at whatever value the market sets it at.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

What are some stances on immigration right now? I know people have been protesting against ICE.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

How do you stand in respect to securing our borders okay so let's talk about the wall people want a lot of folks they want to see a physical barrier and that's great I don't have any issue with that but I can tell you that actually um enforcing the laws that were already on the book has completely stopped immigration across the southern border. And I I've heard the president say that it it's it's almost it's nothing. So all of that was done without a wall. Again I'm okay with the law I'm okay whether it's a physical barrier, some kind of electronic barrier but again uh enforcing the laws that were on the book has done more for stopping that mass migration of folks into the U.S. than having a wall whatever to um as as far as the number of undocumented Americans or I'm sorry undocumented um immigrants that are that are in the U.S. today I would say the large majority of those folks uh they're they're working jobs that uh provide income for their family they are they're contributing to communities in a positive way there needs to be a path for citizenship for those folks somehow to get them documented get them paying their Social Security paying their taxes paying their Medicare tax get them more involved in the in the economy than what they are today.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

So going back to the immigration um I agree with you that I think that there should be a path to citizenship for sure we are a nation of immigrants and you can't just have this bias against people that want to legally come here. Of course we don't want cartel members or dangerous people coming here. And something I know another candidate brought this up I'm not sure which one it was but they were talking about how hey most of this stuff is actually coming in not through the actual border but through the waterways. And you mentioned ports and stuff. So what's your opinion on securing our waterways? Because I think that's something people overlook.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

So I'm not I'm not familiar with uh with that opinion uh or or that um yeah I I haven't seen any numbers of the number of folks actually coming in uh through waterways or through ports I do believe though at at every port we have someone from uh border control at each of these different ports to make sure that you know folks uh accessing and egressing off of ships that are that are you know actually at port uh that that's managed uh you know in a way that you know you don't you won't you won't be having those issues.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

So yeah I think we're uh people probably a little more concerned with the drugs than the the people themselves but drugs coming in I think that is a problem um that we see a lot more especially being in a port area um I know was talking about how I do some maritime work too out of like Homa in the New Orleans area and some of those waterways are not especially secure um something I'd beg everybody running to kind of consider is maybe not less focused but keeping in mind that those are entrance ways of our country the air and the sea you can get here just like you can get over the actual land absolutely yeah yeah you know the the other thing on on finding folks who have committed felonies or who have active warrants outside of the U.S.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

when someone comes to the U.S. if if they are a felon whether it be a convicted felon or someone who has committed felonies and just have active warrants out they they do not come here and stop committing felonies they will continue to do that and inevitably they will be picked up by local law enforcement so when local law enforcement picks someone up they should be able to take what are your documents I need to identify who you are and once we identify who they are if we find out they're not in the country legally then you make contact with you know Homeland Security and have them actually manage it versus having federal having having federal agencies go into communities and actually start pulling people out again a felon is all is is normally going to continue to keep uh committing felons and they and they will be caught.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

Absolutely so what would you tell people why should they vote for you or the other candidates in this race? Because there's a lot of choices there's some good choices maybe there's some not so good choices but what do you think distinguishes you and what would you tell people why you should earn their vote?

SPEAKER_01 29:29

So uh if you want business as usual if if you just want someone to go to Washington and they're saying we're gonna we're gonna support the Trump agenda 100% and we're gonna help the president do everything that he wants to do. I'm not that guy. You know what you there there are other candidates of the seven of us that that you can vote for. I am a a moderate and in saying that I I actually found it a bit funny because I always felt I was very conservative I think I'm more of a Reagan Republican or a Bush Republican than than I guess than what a conservative Republican is today. I do have uh a financial background I don't have any training in that other than just on the job. I had managed large budgets I have managed large organizations um I don't believe any of the other candidates have had any formalized uh leadership training uh I I I completed an executive leadership program at Harvard several years ago um and you know what I I'm just I'm different I'm not a politician uh I'm I'm okay if I don't win but in saying that I actually believe that I am a good choice to go to Washington in today's environment if you actually want to move forward with with policies that are that are meaningful and that affect 100% of Americans and that's that's the debt reduction and that's doing something with healthcare then that's what I'm committed to and also changing the tone and changing the rhetoric and being willing to go across party lines to to put in place some lasting legislation uh and and not just live off of executive orders you know from you know one one administration to another and have them all reverse well thank you so much for coming where can people find more about you at what's your website how can they reach out and possibly contribute so one I don't want any contributions uh I am doing this 100% uh with my money and when I say my money it's mine it's not my dad's it's it's not it's not my kids it's not a brother it's not a sister it's all my money and I wanted to be able to do that so I have absolutely no strings attached I have not taken one penny of special interest or PAC money and and by the way if you want to audit me you're more than welcome to do that all right uh I've also committed that when I go into office and I realize uh members of Congress their their financials do get audited but I'm telling you when I go in I've got I've got what I have today I've got a pension I have some assets and property and when I leave Congress in four years not six I only run free election one time other than what how how those assets may have uh matured I will not have anymore I'm not gonna make any money no stocks no bonds no new IRAs nothing uh I'm I'm Jimmy Dees you can find me at jimmy dees.com and also deesforcongress com that's D E E S the number four Congress.com All right thank you so much for coming the Republican primary is May nineteenth here state of Alabama and be sure to go vote thank you all right thank you yeah I appreciate it yes sir yeah I appreciate it